The manufacture of gears is a field of particular competence within the Hilchenbach workshop of SMS group. Here, gears are designed, toothings milled and ground, housings welded and finally complete units are assembled, all under one roof. This potential could recently be demonstrated with the production of a four-stage gear with totally 29 wheels and a weight of 261 tons. This radial gear for a forging machine is the most complex one ever made in the Hilchenbach workshop.
VIDEO: Design and assembly of a radial gear unit for a forging plant
261 tons precision workmanship of the SMS group-workshop in Hilchenbach
Ultimately, we benefited from the close cooperation between the engineering and production teams and the continuous exchange of information during assembly. Quick joint decisions were made where required, and everything fitted nicely into place despite the huge dimensions of the gear unit.
| Performance | 4 x 1,500 kW = 6,000 kW |
| Rated output torque | 8,805,000 Nm |
| Total gear ratio | 115.3:1 |
A stand-out feature of our Hilchenbach and Mönchengladbach locations is the direct interaction between engineering and manufacturing. This naturally facilitates a continuous exchange of ideas between these departments for ongoing optimization of our products.
In the end, even with components of this size, a few micrometers often decide if the assembly process will go smoothly or not. In this case all departments did a perfect job and were able to install the gear unit without any delays.
In the pre-assembly phase, the contact pattern of the gearwheels was continuously checked to ensure fast and precise installation at the customer’s site.
After pre-assembly, the gear was dismantled into smaller units and prepared for transportation. The challenge here was to forward the largest part, with a total weight of still 193 tons and a volume of 88.3 m³, to the Port of Hamburg for shipment.
Together with the transport service provider DAHER PROJECTS GmbH, and thanks to a detailed agreement with Deutsche Bahn, this challenge was also successfully overcome.
The workshop in Hilchenbach has its own rail siding, meaning the parts could be easily transported by train. This will play an increasingly important role for the location in future as a reliable alternative to road transport.
The large gear unit was loaded quickly and successfully thanks to the intense coordination between all parties involved.
